Deciding to Expand our Family

 

Being a family means your are a part of something very wonderful.  It means you will love and be loved for the rest of your life.  No matter what!

 

 

We knew once we pulled the trigger on the adoption decision, we were on uncharted territory.  We knew one, maybe two people who had adopted.  We could follow the how-to books and great advice offered to us to get us from start to finish (from application to baby), and I have watched just enough Dateline and 48 hour Mystery television programs to know that adoption can also be a scary thing, but where do we start?

 

The process of adopting a child pushes your personal envelope as a person, as a mother and father, and ultimately as a human being, I would assume.  It takes more courage, trust and patients than we thought we had.

 

We did entertain the idea of a surrogate mother for about 5 minutes.  We had a consultation with an office in Colorado and when we got off the phone, we knew at that moment that surrogacy was not for us.  We wanted a child.  We didn't care if it was at all biologically ours, we wanted a child. 

 

We started looking around Nebraska at different adoption agencies and ran into the same problem with every single one of them....they would not even entertain our application until we were married for 3 or more years.  I could not comprehend this, but rules are rules.  And for some reason, Nebraska has some different laws, so we had to find a national agency that would also work with Nebraska.  That was a challenge in and of itself! 
 

I spoke to my great friend, Amy, and she suggested we use her agency out of California.  I was so excited.  I called them, and what do you know, they don't work with couples in Nebraska.  Our first rejection and I was crushed.  I thought it would be perfect as we knew someone who had been through it and could trust this agency.  (Because, believe me, there are A LOT of shady ones out there!)  They were able to refer me to another California based national agency and my spirits were lifted again! 

 

I made the first call the beginning of October and was directed to someone to "give me information" and I knew then I had made the call that would change our lives forever.